France |
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13 May - 3 June 2006Paticipants: Rachel Grindlay, Tom Brennan Hong Kong (12 hour stopover)
Buddha at Ngong Ping - the start of our walk
Rachel en route to Lantau Peak
View down Lantau Island
Rachel and Tom at Lantau Peak (934m)
Tom looking down to the valley
Rachel during a rest break on the descent
Rachel at Hong Kong's walk-through aviary
Rachel looking at the city from Victoria Peak
The funicular railway to Victoria Peak FranceParis
a recently cleaned Notre Dame, Paris The Vercors
Grenoble
In the village of St-Nizier-du-Moucherotte looking out to Le Moucherotte (peak) and Les Trois Pucelles
View from our room in St Nizier
Start of our 70km walk
Looking down to Grenoble and Roc de Bataillon
Our first (of many) snow encounters - this one close to the peak of Le Moucherotte
Tom at la table d'orientation at Le Moucherotte (1906m). Behind him is where the walk goes.
Tom walking along the path on the western side of the range
Rachel about to start the descent to Villard-de-Lans
View from Villard-de-Lans to the mountains our path follows
The mascot of Villard-de-Lans
Rachel and Tom at the Royban Refuge
Views over the western side of the range
Rachel making her way up to the pass of Col Vert
Rachel still slogging her way up
Final views of the western side of the range from Col Vert
Final views of the western side of the range from Col Vert
The seat at Col Vert (1766m) - Grenoble in background
Tom on Sentier du Balcon Est with Les Aiguilles behind
Rachel next to one of the many signposts - note the baguettes in rubbish bag attached to the pack!
Rachel crossing one of the 4 snow drifts we encountered that day
The gite d'etape we stayed at the end of day 2
After dinner at the gite - our hosts tried to convince us to sample the local liqueurs - yellow and green chartreuse and Genepy des Alpes
The view at sunset from the gite. Mont Aiguille is bathed in sunlight. Our original route would have taken us along the range on a path about half-way up the mountains. Due to the amount of snow we went through the valley instead
The view from our room in the morning
The Rochers des Deux Soeurs behind the gite
Another view of the eastern side of the range
A far easier road to travel then the balcony path of the previous day!
One of the many cows around - this one in the hamlet of St Andeol
Our only stream crossing - the water was freezing!
Walking up through the forest
Tom with Le Grand Veymont in the background
View of Le Grand Veymont (2341m) from our room in Gresse-en-Vercors - we had planned to climb it but a combination of bad weather and too much snow stopped that plan
Donkeys in the hamlet of la Batie
Rest stop on the way to Col de l'Aupet
Mont Aiguille - the home of French mountaineering (first climbed in 1492)
View from our room in Richardiere
Mont Aiguille in the morning
Looking up to the Pas de l'Aiguille
Tom en route to Pas de l'Aiguille
Looking down the dodgy terrain
One of the caves on the plateau
Mouth of the cave. This plateau was the scene of some WWII resistance. 23 men held out against German attack for over 30 hours in one of the caves
Looking out over the plateau and the monument to the 8 men who died during the attack
A waterfall
Final view of Mont Aiguille
View from Fort de la Bastille over Grenoble. We came up in one of the pods
View of Grenoble - the straight road is 8km long! Canal Boat - Agen to Valence-sur-Baise
We have now travelled to Agen and have boarded the "Damazan". We are crossing an aquaduct - see the river flowing underneath
Alec at the helm
Hannah on one of the hire bikes
Toby on another of the bikes - about to set off for supplies - pity we don't have a photo from when they got back - hot, sweaty & dishevelled after a 10km ride to catch up with the boat
Rachel at the helm, Liz and Alec supervising :-)
Crossing another aquaduct
Plain trees line the Canal Lateral
More views down the canal with Rachel again at the helm (from the photos you'd think it was a frequent occurance - don't be deceived I think the only two times it happened are both captured in photos)
Views down the canal
Rachel cycling down the tow path (photo taken by Tom while he was riding)
Inside the boat
Captain Tom
Hannah being a tourist in Damazan
Toby also being a tourist in Damazan
Damazan town square
We descended from the Canal Lateral to the River Baise - the first night we stopped at Vianne
Vianne's town wall
Vianne's wall and church
Front of the church
Tom outside the town wall
The only interesting thing about Lavardac!
A chateau we passed on the River
Locking down
One of the many beautiful ex-eclusier's houses
In a lock
Nerac by night
Some of many ducks we saw (both on land and on the dinner table)
Le Chateau de Henri IV
Rachel feeding ducklings
Banana split :-)
Amazing ice cream sundaes in Nerac - no one was game to try the savoury-flavoured sorbets through
Nerac
Doing a u-turn on the river!
Locking up
No room to move - one of the narrow sections - Tom driving with Alec and Hannah looking on
A goose at an eclusier's house
Toby with his neatly coiled hose (shortly after it had leaked water down his jeans)
The Brennan's (minus Nicko who was sailing somewhere off the coast of France)
More locking up
Some of the river wildlife
Hannah retrieving her cap
Large church in Condom
Locking up at the manually-operated, double lock outside Condom
Rachel scaling the ladder to operate the lock
Dragonfly love
A random chateau in Valence-sur-Baise
la table d'orientation in Valence-sur-Baise. Apparently the Pyrenees can be seen in the distance.
The last night on the boat Cauterets, Pyrenees
Rachel part of the way up the Pic de Cabaliros
Further up the walk as the cloud descends
Daffodils amongst hundreds of buds - image what it would be like in a couple of weeks
Views from the Col de Contente
An old refuge
Almost at the peak
View of the Pyrenees
At the Pic de Cabaliros (2334m)
Rachel trying to not get sunburnt (she failed - the last time Tom listens when Rachel says to not bother bringing sunscreen)
Tom descending
Tom crossing stream
Rachel in the middle of the stream
View from our street in Cauterets
Some rock formations en route to Lac de Gaube
Rachel and Tom at Lac de Gaube
Lac de Gaube
On the other side of Lac de Gaube
Looking down the valley
Waterfall at Pont d'Espagne
Tom on Pont d'Espagne
The track we took back to Cauterets is called the Sentier des Cascades. Unsurprisingly there are a lot of waterfalls! This one is Cascade de Bousses
Cascade du Ceriset
Tom above the gave (mountain stream) descending to La Railliere
Cascade de Lutour
Day 3 in Cauterets - we walked to Plateau du Lisey (1636m)
Tom and Rachel at the Plateau du Lisey
Some of the cows at the Plateau du Lisey
Plateau du Lisey
View from the Turon des Oules on the way down
Tom on one of the old paths
The river running through (and under) Cauterets
The apartment we stayed in
Cauterets
View from the apartment balcony Paris
Rachel in Paris
Champ de Mars from La Tour Eiffel
Tom and La Tour Eiffel
Arc de Triomphe
Arc de Triomphe
Place de la Concorde - the granite obelisk is 3300 years old and was a gift from the Viceroy of Egypt to Charles X
The Louvre
Tom in the Louvre
Rachel outside the Louvre
La Tour Eiffel at night through the rain Tom Brennan : website@ozultimate.com: updated 20060606 |